Microsoft Indonesia's leader may have confirmed Windows 9 will be free for Windows 8 users

A new report claims that the President of Microsoft Indonesia, Andreas Diantoro, confirmed in a presentation this week that the launch of the next version of Windows could be free for people who have already installed Windows 8 on their PCs.

According to the (translated) article on the Indonesia website Detik, Diantoro stated, "when the OS (Windows 9) was launched later, users who have been using Windows 8 just need to do the update via his device. It will be installed automatically." A few months ago, ZDNet reported that Microsoft was thinking about making the next version of Windows free for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 owners.

Microsoft Indonesia's leader may have confirmed Windows 9 will be free for Windows 8 users

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Absolutely it should expand to Windows 7 users. Microsoft needs to makes some waves and rock the f'n boat a little if you catch my drift. Think about the uniformity that could be achieved by migrating all Windows 7 & 8 systems to 9. That would be a massive tidal wave barreling down on developers to get their asses in gear and publish their apps for both the main Windows OS and our beloved mobile OS. In my opinion, this decision is obvious.

I think this transition to Windows 9 is gonna bring big things in the future. Being a owner of a Xbox one, Nokia Lumia 1520, and my AW X51... Really has me interested in the marrying of all these oss.... Glad it's free. But if I had to pay I would. And why is it people keep making the claim that to get the full Windows 8 experience, you must own a touch device????? That is totally absurd and honestly my phone which is touch gives the same experience as my non touch PC and Xbox one.... People act as though the tiles are nothing more then digital finger buttons... Smh

I think its time to abandon desktop windows altogether in favor for modern windows, Microsoft should be funding developers to port all software over and move with the times. Its a touchscreen world we live in now that's the reality

I heavily doubt that this would be free for Windows 7 users too, giving it free to Windows 8 users makes sense because it was not a complete Windows OS ( I never had any problems though) and alot of people who switched had problems.
Giving it free for windows 7 users will be breakthrough though in the history of Microsoft since this kind of thing never happened with Microsoft :)

Should be free for win 8 users because 9 is a modification of 8 and my understanding the company wants to eliminate it and move quickly to windows 9 from8 Windows 7 users got the software as promised its still popular and its a different generation OS . Pay to upgrade should move to the free or very low cost upgrade model after that. Unless ms can afford giving away millions of licenses
at 40 bucks a pop

Windows 8.1 users get for free sounds good,other users can pay for it ,if you have windows phone and can be verified by some means of Microsoft account you get discount from the price you'd pay if you don't have windows 8 installed on your pc

No please not free, soon it will be full of ads or shit. Everything is going to shit because of google. Everything must be free - but wait - full of ads. In few years we will see an ad before opening a word document or a banner on the desktop. I can see this shit happen... YouTube became a living nightmare.

Seriously? Ad's inside an OS, how is that possible. I imagine opening control panel and I am presented with ad's in the bottom, well this sounds insane and this won't happen.
Ad's in apps or programs is another thing.

Give Windows for free can be a good move, but I think they can lost the opportunity to make a lot of money , because there are millions of people using Windows right now.
So, what do you think? Will Microsoft open the Windows' gate?

By making Windows free for everybody, including XP, Vista, and Windows 7, If the computers hardware would support it, we would all be entering the threshold together. If your hardware doesn't support it, you'll need to buy a new computer with Windows on it. If you're on XP, Vista, or Windows 7, you'll have a chance to upgrade. If you don't, you'll get no more support. It would be an easy way for Microsoft to rip the band aid off and begin anew. Hence the name Threshold.

Needs to be free for all. After the way things have gone the last few years they need to work to keep people on board. There are alot of people who did not upgrade to 8 and are waiting for the next version. Requiring those people to pay after everything they have heard about 8 could be the thing that pushes them to move to something like a Chromebook. Needs to be free for everyone.

I think the next version should just be called "Windows" as well, and should be free for anyone with a valid license for Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, as long as their hardware can handle it.

Charge for it on new devices/new systems, etc. That will get everyone migrated to the new "Windows" so that we can start that "One" experience across all devices for everyone. That will tip the phone and tablet market, which is the future of the market, into MS favor. In the long run, it would be the best thing for Microsoft.

The big problem is getting XP off of all the ATM machines, UPC Code scanning computers in the stores, etc.

A lot of people in here are sounding like apple sheeple... no one has any idea what a Windows 9/Threshold/TH would bring, but they already seem willing to get it. Baaaaaaaaaaaa sheeple.

I also can't figure the hate towards Windows 8.1. I think IE11 is a disaster in some cases, but the OS itself is pretty effin stable and it all works. Metro isn't too bad, though it is frustrating as hell that the WP sync apps, in either mode, completely suck. I also don't spend but a few minutes a day in the Metro-side anyhow.

So unless this OS is soooooo completely badass AND free, the household will be sticking to what we have now: 2 WPs, 2 Win8 PCs, 2 Win7 PCs, and 1 Server 2012 Datacenter RC2 server.

We already know a lot of what it brings. It'll let us run our modern apps (which I already love) in windowed mode. That there is enough to get me to upgrade, but it'll also have a start menu and notification center, DX12 when the final is released, IE12, and a lot more. Plus, it'll potentially be free for 8 and 8.1 users. It's always an advantage to be up to date on your OS, so I see no reason not to upgrade.

Finally! You buy brand new laptop with last Windows and then you need to pay for new firmware.. F*CK you MS! Os X is free for years.. And people say Apple are greedy.. Everything in MS is overpriced :-)))

Apparently all operating systems should be free and the developers who work on each incarnation of Windows (which tend to have far more things added with each version than OSX) should feed their families on sunshine and dewdrops. I hope you aren't one of those "this company has billions of dollars so they should give everything away for free" people. Also, I dare you to bring up Linux.

Lol, that is total bull. Windows 8.1 is basically a faster Windows 7 that also allows you to have apps. So, how in the world is 7 better for programming? Heck, I've seen programming software that require Windows 8.

The way I look at this is that Windows is moving towards services and it is in their best interest to have as many people as possible on board the latest version to earn revenue from those services. I understand that license sales will be hit in a big way. However, think of what happens when the entire Windows user base across all versions is on the latest version. Creates more opportunity for selling services to those users.

I'm going to say, if the leak was intentional the whole point is to get people on Windows 7 to jump buy Windows 8 (and increase their sales).

Extending the Windows 9 for free to W7 users at this stage would cut away from Windows 8 sales.
When Windows 8 came out they had a similar promotion where Windows 7 users could buy Windows 8 for only 15.00 or something. This increased adoption and encouraged people with a Windows 7 to upgrade.

From a consumer aspect, keeping the upgrade cheap would bennefit them to hopefully bring everyone to the new platform. Having to troubleshoot and update one OS version is much easier than updating multiple. This would also increase familiarity for business workers who'd be familiar with the OS and most likely adapt to the new work flows, encouraging companies to upgrade earlier rather than later since one of the biggest issues with upgrdes is the learning curve for the workforce.

Of course I'm simplifying the adoption process, since for Windows 9 to be a really big hit with consumers they are going to have to maintain Advance options available to power users, but keep everything simplified for the users who are shy to try and explore the operating system. Introducing hints might sound like a good way to educate new users, but if they are the shy type, they tend to get nervous and frustrated with pop up boxes trying to explain things.

In other words, teaching at a simplified rate is not only challenging but difficult since every user will react differently to materials. But it seems I veered off topic. :P

No joke, I know a local company here that uses MS DOS still.
I'm not a standard W7 user, I customize and alter it, mod games, etc etc etc. I don't have any issues with the W8 style, I have a Lumia 521 so. But like I always say. Let desktops be desktops. And touch screen devices be mobile. That's all I need to say. On a standard desktop with no touch screen. W8 is pointless, especially from a modder/gamer perspective.

Well at least you get DX12 with next version of windows :P, hopefully Mantle will kick off as (I really like AMD's approach) the cycle for DX is just too long and I don't think Apple will take Metal cross platform.

Win 7 users are cheapskates in Microsoft's eyes. Why reward the stingy with a free upgrade? It makes sense to be good to the Win 8 customers. That said, it might be a way for them to expand the Win 9 user base exponentially...

Cheapskates? Where have you been living dude? Windows 7 is still the most popular OS out there. Why should people upgrade when there isn't a reason to. Get your facts straight. Most Windows 7 users have no reason to upgrade in the near future considering that Microsoft will be supporting it for some time.

I thought I'd get a response such as this - what I mean to say is that why would MS give people a free upgrade when they haven't got the latest OS? All I'm saying is that they're much more likely to give win 8 users the OS than win 7 users. Read the rest of my comment! Your blood did not have to boil!

while Microsoft doesn't really do it, because OEMs give cheaper hardware so not everyone will pay premium for a Microsoft surface. Apple is their only competition with OSX so it's obvious they don't have to worry becuase when you get a mac you get the OS.

I don't know why people like you seem like it's hard to comprehend a simple thing like that............

The problem is that often there's no fixed month. So saying the season is the best way to give at least some window of time.

Also, everyone has seasons and even though it's become harder and harder to strictly separate them, they are marked by the solstices and equinoxes ;)

I do understand if you say "well, they say Winter" but my Winter is in July (which is what happens if you're in the Southern hemisphere). But that's when you must remember WPCentral is a mainly US-based site and therefore they always refer to Northern seasons.

Well, if there's no given month and you can't be bothered to know the seasons in the Northern Hemisphere (it's not "another country's seasons. It's the entire Northern half of the globe) then that's your problem.

Yeah, we have monsoons over here but we only use them in the context of weather discussions. I believe most of the traffic to WPCentral comes from eastern parts of the world, so I guess WPCentral have to consider this.

Lol I still may reinstall since I can't find a definitive answer on if I upgrade my ssd firmware it'll be destructive or not. I've got boot issues to either its the firmware or when I updated to 8.1 from the store. Cause windows 8 ran fine. So we shall see.

then install bluestacks or other Android Emulators... built in? why? like you said you can install it, so do it.

Windows it's fine with no android apps... becuase it has real games, it has nice web browsers and some apps will eventually come to windows 8. we already have a tinder app, not official but it was something hard to get on the phone and now win8 has one.

so again, install bluestacks if you want android apps like you said. I mean "Build in" sounds like something silly when you can do it yourself, and it's not something that would benefit Microsoft from.

I think it's a good idea to give it for free to all of us who have endured Windows 8. It can only generate good word-of-mouth for Microsoft.

However, I don't think Microsoft should offer it for free to Windows 7 users. They are using an already awesome OS, if they want Windows 9 they should buy it. They can make an initial promotion like the one they did for Windows 8 though.

Unless, of course, Microsoft just wants to try and make everyone leave all versions of Windows which aren't Windows 9, in which case I hope they made sure they made Windows 9 light enought to be supported by 5-7 year old computers in a breeze.

Yes please! I just bought Windows 8.1 Pro back in May for a new PC build. It would suck if I had to buy the new OS less than a year later.
Also I agree with the other users, Windows 7 users should have to pay something. Hell most of em' hate windows 8 and are scared of change.

Right now getting the lost market share is more important. Makes sense to give this for free now. Get people on board windows 9 then make revenue by windows 10 or Microsoft products. Right now Microsoft has to get its share back.

Let me articulate Bengali dada. Kamon aacho? I meant windows 8 market shares combined with 8.1 are even less than vista and xp. I meant in context of windows 8. This also means that Microsoft gained nothing in tablets bcas of the OS and not hardware like surface which was top notch hardware. I meant with windows 9 if successful with features like Cortana will bring more users to the fray and may also at least increase Microsoft 's share albeit marginally into tablets.

I guess we need to wait till Tuesday for the offical announcement (I submitted a tip a few hours before this post), It sounds possable but, I wonder where it will leave XP and WIndows 7 users. Yea, XP is deal but, you would not believe on how many people actually are still using XP...(one of those things, if it aint broken, dont fix it).

This would be great if true, as I am dual booting with 7 and 8.1 but, spend 99% of my time on 7 because I find 7 easier to use and find thigns than on 8.8.1....I have 2 WIndows 8 licenences so cool, W9 on my tablet and desktop...

I guess all will be known on Tuesday....In a way I hope they release on tuesday and the other side if me wishes not....Forza Horizon 2 for my Xbox one will be at my door on the 30th....too much to play with on a work day !!!! And I am freaking out waiting for Forza to hit...

I have created a 100gb partition just waiting for Windows 7....Preped and ready to go !!! Release away !

No offense, XP is great, I dual booted when 7 came out, but tbh XP is broken, and MS won't be fixing it any more. I'd we are talking about adoption, when 7 fixed many of the word of Vista, MS was hoping that people would upgrade, but they didn't, I think that was out of fear and not because of money. Now with 9/TH that would be 3-4 OS later and people still want to consider using that plagued piece of software just because most things are still compatible with it? I just can't understand that logic...